Rage Against the machine

Heavy Metal And Civic activism

Heavy metal music has been proven as a positive influence on most youth as it is used by youth to create political formations. It is viewed by many that political and social involvement are positive attributes in an individual and in particular for youth. Studies have shown that youth who listen to heavy metal are more involved politically and socially than youth that listen to other genres of music. Further it is argued by some that heavy metal music provides a form of showing political views and further expressing them. So heavy metal music is used by youth as they develop their values and beliefs during a critical period in their life. During this critical period, heavy metal is used by adolescents to cope with the constantly changing and turbulent world around them as well as aid in forming their beliefs. The article, “Music Preferences and Civic Activism in Young People” by Ambrose Leung and Cheryl Kier from the Journal of Youth Studies presents a research which gives empirical data on music preference and civic activity among youth. The study analyzed civic participation among 182 adolescents aged 14-24 years from Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Participants conducted a voluntary survey including questions that measured demographic characteristics, opinion of parenting styles, participation in community activities, views of spending and saving money, music preferences and social relationships (Leung and Kier 445). Questions related to non-organized volunteer activities were taken from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children & Youth and the General Social Survey on Social Engagement in Canada. Ten aspects were measured including items such as activities in school, providing transportation or running errands, and teaching, coaching or giving practical advice. Civic activism was measured by participants selecting any of nine listed items they had participated in within the last twelve months. Activities included researching a political issue, volunteering in a political party and expressing views through newspaper or politician. To measure association and group involvement participants selected any of five options such as sports involvement, involvement in a hobby organization or involvement in a religious organization. Social support from friends was measured by a twenty question test that was found by Procidano and Heller to have an internal consistency of 0.88 (Leung and Kier 449-450). The survey results showed heavy metal and related genres to be among the highest for those that were politically active. As shown in the charts, factor 7, representing heavy metal, was among the highest for civic activism among youth (Leung and Kier 451-454). Reasons for this were not conducted in this study but relations to more political lyrics and structures found in heavy metal were mentioned as possible reasons. This is easy to see with many heavy metal bands including political views in their music. One such example is the band Rage Against the Machine, who frequently spoke out their political views through their music. As a result youth are able to channel this into their own views and beliefs as a way of expression and activism which is important for any socially involved adolescent.Table 2. Relationship between music genres and civic activism Variable Coefficients (t-statistics) Factor 1 (blues . . .) 0.1474 (1.77)* Factor 2 (techno . . .) 0.0238 (0.30) Factor 3 (hip-hop . . .) 0.1817 (2.22)** Factor 4 (classical . . .) 0.2222 (2.81)*** Factor 5 (new age . . .) 0.2265 (2.65)*** Factor 6 (contemporary rock . . .) 0.0477 (0.56) Factor 7 (heavy metal . . .) 0.2283 (2.79)*** Factor 8 (alternative country . . .) 0.0227 (0.28) Threshold 1 0.5332 (7.11)*** Threshold 2 1.0083 (11.46)*** Threshold 3 1.5655 (15.12)*** Threshold 4 2.0547 (16.48)*** Threshold 5 2.2593 (16.46)*** Threshold 6 2.6859 (15.42)*** Threshold 7 3.0241 (13.60)*** Threshold 8 3.3542 (11.18)*** Value of log-likelihood function 336.23 Chi-squared statistics 34.76*** Number of observations 182 a*Coefficients and t-statistics of the control variables (age, sex, parenting styles, and friendship) were included in the regression analysis but are not shown here. ***Significant at the 99% confidence level (two-tailed test), **significant at the 95% confidence level (two-tailed test), and *significant at the 90% confidence level (two-tailed test).

In the graph above higher coefficients of control variables represent higher accounts of civic activism among test subjects. As one can see factor 7, which accounts for heavy metal, has the highest coefficient.

The table above uses a varimax rotation coefficient to represent the factor analysis. The higher coefficients represent higher accounts of civic activism according to the study.